Amazon, Coca-Cola Eye Railways’ Goods Sheds to Bolster Supply Chain

May 4: As the Indian Railways plans to shore up its revenue by leasing out its goods sheds, players like Amazon and Coca-Cola are setting their eyes on the process to setup warehouses in those spaces. Around 50 railway goods sheds across the country are set to be leased out to private companies on a public-private partnership basis by Indian Railways in a bid to stabilize its financials.

According to reports, Amazon and Coca-Cola have emerged as interested private players, who will be eyeing to setup mechanized warehouses for their logistics networks in the leased-out goods sheds of the Indian Railways.

The leasing comes as a part of Railways’ decision to modernize its goods sheds across the country. Railway holds over 300 such goods sheds across India, of which 50 will be put up for lease in the first phase. As a pilot project, three divisions of IR have been identified for the process, and they are Dhanbad, Vizad and Delhi.

Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani has been quoted as saying that the identification of the private parties is yet to be finalized. A senior official from the railway ministry however is said to have disclosed the names of Amazon and Coca-Cola as interested private parties, according to the report from Mint. The list also includes other logistic firms and FMCGs in India, though names weren’t disclosed by the aforesaid person. Amazon and Coca-Cola refused to give a response.

Railways is expected to lease out the sheds for a period of 30-35 years as per the plan. The period will however be varying depending upon locations. An investment of Rs 10-20 crore is expected for the renovation of each shed.

Railways has taken up the decision to lease out its railways goods as suggested by AT Kearney, a consultancy firm which carried out a study on the modernization and transformation of the railway goods sheds. Railways is also seeking other measures for boosting its revenues by means of land monetization, catering, parking and advertising.

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